Only on this
website, not on any estate agent or council or community websites, is it
revealed that purchasers/leaseholders of residential Sovereign Harbour property must
pay a unique annual and increasingly expensive flood defence and harbour charge
averaging £290 a year in 2019 (£265 a year in 2018) in addition to
council taxes, property insurance, management fees and ground rents. In no
other flood area or harbour or marina area or private estate anywhere else in
Britain, the UK, Europe or the world does this apply. A much wider flood
zone area than just Sovereign Harbour is involved, affecting more than
17,000 homes, yet the Sovereign Harbour Trust, owned by The Wellcome Trust makes
only 3,104 Sovereign Harbour residents and their successors pay it, to the
Environment Agency, not businesses including managing agents and property
developers. As Members of Parliament and Eastbourne Borough and East Sussex
County councillors have refused to help right this wrong applicable uniquely and
solely to Sovereign Harbour residents, the matter has now been referred to
overseas agencies . A second unique covenant requires owners/leaseholders
of 369 South Harbour properties in the water feature precinct to pay a further
annual chargeof £328 in 2018. It is the only such water feature
in the world that applies such a charge to properties overlooking it.

Imposed by The Wellcome Trust, they not found anywhere else in the
UK, Europe or world

By Keith A. Forbes
and his wife Lois Ann Forbes. Both disabled, they live in Eastbourne and write, administer and webmaster
this website. Keith is a member of the UK's The
Society of Authors and an activist for the elderly and disabled.

Part of Sovereign
Harbour

Presently, due to the following,
in terms of real value for money in overall expenditure for management fees,
council taxes, Estate Rent charge, beaches concerns and more, it offers limited
investment value and 4/10 in value for money. All who live here as owners or
long-leaseholders incur the following. Some are distinctly unusual and
likely to some unpalatable. Overall, they mean presently that
Sovereign Harbour advantages are outweighed by its
disadvantages.

This will be a better place once the following wrongs
below are righted by The Wellcome Trust and others

See https://wellcome.ac.uk/About-us/.
and others. It is Imposed on
residents of Sovereign Harbour alone, no other of its UK harbours, by
Premier Marinas, owned by The Wellcome Trust.
See Estate Rent Charge.
Often referred to as harbour
charge). Payable only by residents who own or lease their flats or terraced
or other homes in the Sovereign Harbour area. The annual estate rental charge -
over £256 per household in 2018 - is in addition to management fees, council
taxes, ground rents, insurances and more.

Even even when residents are disabled, do not themselves use the harbour, do not own or
operate a boat, but merely look at the harbour; and even when they cannot
see the harbour at all but live on the other (beach) side of it, they still
have to pay the charge. It is the only place in the world which charges
its residents living on its privately-run estate an Estate Rent Charge as
ever-increasing annual sum but allows the general public, to the annoyance of
its private residents, unrestricted access at no cost to visitors, to all its walkways, pathways and
beach-area land. Visitors pay
nothing at all to use Sovereign Harbour's promenades and beaches that are not private because they offer
unrestricted leisure opportunities to the general public. The beach frontages
are owned not by any local residents but solely by the
area's property developers up to the high water mark, are open to the public and
also very popular with dog walkers. They include the majority who are not
Sovereign Harbour residents but live either elsewhere in the Eastbourne town
area or further and bring their dogs here deliberately because they know the
beaches here, although within the Eastbourne Sovereign Ward town area, have none
of the same restrictions or responsibilities or accountabilities to dog owners
that occur on Eastbourne town beaches. Sovereign Harbour residents with
properties overlooking the beaches are furious about this, especially when they
see dogs fouling the beach area with no owner wanting to pick up the mess, or
letting their dogs off their leashes. Some dog walkers have up to six dogs.
There ought to be a legal way to either totally exclude non-resident members of
the public from using these developer-owned beachfront areas for any purpose
including walking, dog walking and cycling, or making all non-resident visitors
to Sovereign Harbour who walk, dog walk and cycle pay a portion of the Estate
Rent charge, instead of residents alone having to pay it but getting nothing
back for it.

The Estate Rent Charge is a wrong
that needs to be righted. The Environment Agency helped cause and is the
principal beneficiary of the charge. The Environment Agency, local councils and their
councillors, local community groups and current Member of Parliament Mr Stephen
Lloyd have not acted to right the wrong. For over
17 years of the Estate Rent Charge, only the 3,700 or so Sovereign Harbour
residents, not any businesses, have been legally required to pay it, not any of the 17,000 or so
other property owners and businesses beyond Sovereign Harbour whose
homes are also in the same flood zone area but have never been asked and are not
legally required to pay it at all.

In Sovereign Harbour there are
currently many more properties now on sale than there are buyers. Some may
not have increased in value or by much since first built. Some asking
prices are higher than when first built or last sold, but others are presently
being offered for less than paid when first built or bought. Not generally known
by newcomers or passed on to new buyers or renters is that many properties
stipulate in the fine pint of their lease or purchase documents that apartments
or flats cannot be sublet or rented out. Yet many are, putting their lessees or
owners at risk. Frequently, when properties bought the cost of their annual
council taxes are not mentioned, there is no mention that annual harbour charges
(the biggest single controversial culprit) are passed on from buyer to successor
buyer, annual management fees and ground rents if also applicable are not
specified. Some ground rents may rise appreciably. The law of declining returns
has now begun to bite and only when harbour charges - unique in all the world,
nowhere else has them - are removed, lease lengths are automatically extended
for appropriate properties, with some that are leasehold - such as those for 999
years - made freehold. When these and other changes described above and below
are made, more properties stand a better chance of increasing in prices and
becoming better investments.

To comply wholly with the
Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008 (CPRs) and the Business
Protection from Misleading Marketing Regulations 2008 (BPRs), for each property
being advertised for sale or rent estate agents must show:

If Freehold not Leasehold,
what type of freehold? It must be shown upfront if the property is being
sold freehold in fee absolute with possession or freehold but with Sovereign
Harbour estate rental charge/harbour charge and any other covenants
applicable.

If leasehold or not being
sold freehold in fee absolute with possession and not exempted from the
following, the property will be subject to Sovereign Harbour's annual Estate
Rent Charge, otherwise known as the annual "harbour charge.".
It is not just a harbour charge but so much more, a sea defence charge.
There are 3,700+ homes in Sovereign Harbour. Those who buy or lease or
rent them - and their successors - no one else in Eastbourne, are required
to pay annually, not just once, for this Estate Rental Charge, in
reality both a flood defence scheme and harbour charge rolled into one.This
particular sea flood defence scheme extends from Sovereign Harbour
eastwards, and goes beyond it all the way to Cooden Beach, Bexhill about 7
miles away by sea. It must be noted by all present residents and
potential newcomers that this charge is unique to residents in this
Sovereign Harbour area, occurs nowhere else in the UK or Europe or world; is
nevertheless approved by the East Sussex County Council and Eastbourne
Borough Council; applies in 2018 at a cost cost of nearly £260 per
residential household irrespective of whether some properties are worth only
£180,000 or so and others as much as £850,000 or so. This covenanted
charge also applies to any future buyer of that property, but all businesses
in the same flood zone area in and beyond Sovereign Harbour are exempted.
It is also the only place in the entire UK where, with the full approval
of The Wellcome Trust that owns Premier Marinas, its Sovereign Harbour Trust
collects the 2018 annual charge via a subsidiary and has a 25 year contract
via a Pevensey company to undertake this work for the Environment Agency.Nowhere else in the UK does the Environment Agency make such a charge to
taxpayers, only in the case of Sovereign Harbour residents. Thus Sovereign
Harbour residents alone pay the Environment Agency twice, while other
residents pay only once, via general taxation, for similar Environment
Agency work. Also, nowhere else in the UK, only in Sovereign Harbour,
do Premier Marinas, which also owns many other harbours and marinas in the
UK, levy this charge. (Had they known about it fully beforehand from the
material marketing information that was not included but omitted about the
Sovereign Harbour property they acquired in November 2016, recent purchasers
including writers of this website would not have either gone to see or
acquire any Sovereign Harbour property). Further, all Sovereign Harbour
residential properties affected by the Estate Rental Charge are registered
as such by the Sovereign Harbour Trust or its subsidiary CIC with the Land
Valuation Agency.Even
with this Estate Rental Charge occurring solely and uniquely within their
jurisdiction, and meaning that leasehold properties are thus covenanted in
ways no other local authority encounters, the Eastbourne County Council and
Eastbourne Borough Council do not have a similarly unique category of a
lower council tax applicable solely to Estate Rental Charge sufferers. It
also needs to be known that reputable legal firms throughout the UK are
telling potential buyers to beware of buying or investing in property where
such Estate Rent Charges and Rent Charges exist. An East Sussex County
Council and Eastbourne Borough Council-approved Deed and Grant of Covenant
requires as a condition of the sales contract that purchasers of Sovereign
Harbour flats or units (but not the owners of the buildings or any others in
the flood defence area), must pay. Yet a failure of the flood defence scheme
anywhere along this length of coast could possibly affect over 10,000 homes,
far more than just in Sovereign Harbour and cause damage to homeowners
possibly amounting to billions of pounds. No other harbour and marina in the
UK or Europe or the world, only this local community is required to pay for
flood defences that go far beyond just this local community. The cost of
this scheme to owners does not include flood insurance indemnity, Sovereign
Harbour residents alone who pay the cost do not get any insurance included
with it. Recent Member of Parliament until June 8, 2017 Caroline Ansell has
gone public in stating her belief that the charge is grossly unfair.

Current council tax cost
and banding and which local authorities are involved (normally both
Eastbourne Borough Council and East Sussex County Council).

If in Sovereign Harbour
South is the water feature charge applicable? If so, how much at the time of
offer? It will be in addition to normal water costs.

Name of managing agent of a
leasehold propertyand - for leasehold premises - building owner,
with current annual charges for the unit and what additional charges are
likely for the next financial year. Also, otherorganizations
purchasers of those leasehold properties should know about. They all have
different roles. Is there a leaseholders association of that building
or group of buildings? All leaseholders should become members, usually for a
small annual cost. Why? For three reasons. Members provide a common defence
against matters such possible attempts by managing agents or building owners
to raise fees for new maintenance or related works. When a leasehold
association has 60 percent or more of its occupants as members in good
standing it has a legal right to challenge arbitrary decisions. If that 60/%
is not realized because not enough occupants are current members, managing
agents and/or the building's owners (who usually appoint the managing
agents) are legally entitled to proceed without such blockage or
interference. Only when a leasehold association reaches 60% of its
leasehold-holding owner-occupants does it have the power to demand a change
of managing agents. This has happened especially when either management
charges and additional maintenance expenses have been deemed excessive -
unrealistically high by the majority of members of the leaseholders
association, or when the managing agents and/or owners of buildings have
been continuously uncommunicative, or both. NB: Managing agents
are appointed to collect annual or semi-annual demands for management fees
payable by leaseholders and to maintain all lifts and common external areas
of the building including the exteriors of garages and parking spaces. But
they do not get involved in non-common areas. Leaseholders should also know
that if their buildings have lifts installed their management fees will be
higher than buildings without lifts, but leaseholders without their own
garages will pay the same management fee, not less, than leaseholders with
garages, even when those without garages have paid more for their properties
than those with garages. Some managing agents are more responsive than
others in answering questions or handling complaints. The owner of that
building (landlord). When occupiers seek, on an individual (non-common)
basis, information about their flat, or make any complaint, or have or
create any damage or make any structural internal changes to their flats,
such as creating or changing rooms or walls or partitions or bathrooms or
showers they should probably copy managing agents into but should make sure
their submissions are addressed to the owners of the buildings concerned.

Energy coding for the
property.

Present electricity
supplier. Is there a smart meter?

If it also has gas, the
present gas supplier.

Water and waste water
supplier and whether or not the property is metered

Restrictions if any in
leasing or subleasing or letting or short-term renting. Many purchasers
of Sovereign Harbour properties either do not read the fine print of deeds
they sign or ignore them. Many long leases clearly stipulate that
sub-letting or holiday renting is not allowed.

Chancel repair liability.
Not applicable to or required for Sovereign Harbour. Prospective
purchasers need to know this in advance and, if they are from non-local
parts of the UK will need to let their solicitors or conveyance agents know.
If not, they could be charged for a service that is not relevant here.
Potential purchasers should beware of using any local restate agent
referrals for any non-local solicitor not aware of this fact.

Law firms and others
advise you to beware of places with an
Estate Rent Charge (like Sovereign Harbour)

Freehold with fee simple.
See http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/fee-simple-absolute-in-possession.html.
The highest form of freehold, meaning no Estate Rent Charge, no leasehold,
no management fees, in short no reasons why the property should not pass on
to beneficiaries indefinitely. 99%, if not 100%, of the relatively few
supposedly freehold properties in Sovereign Harbour are not freehold in fee
simple.

Repeal of all
unfair-to-residents Sovereign Harbour-related legislation is sought

This includes the
Sovereign Harbour Beaches (Sea Defences) Deed 2001, if that also qualifies for
repeal.

It is possible to apply to repeal an
Act. See https://www.parliament.uk/about/how/laws/acts/.
Changes to Acts: Future
changes to the law happen through the passing of another Act or delegated
legislation. An Act can also be repealed so that its provisions no longer apply.
Parliamentary committees examine UK laws and recommend the removal of out of
date legislation. But this will require the cooperation and input of all estate
charge/harbour charge residents, those who represent them, their local
councillors, others who may be affected and Member of Parliament Stephen Lloyd.

Animals in flats despite
leases not allowing this

Leaseholders in most buildings
either fail to realize or ignore the fact that most leases do not allow
leaseholders to have or their visitors to bring, pets. Animal nuisances
are common in Sovereign Harbour, from dogs in particular. Some dogs have even
wet and stained the carpet or floor covering in lifts. Others bark on
balconies and annoy other residents.

Collective Enfranchisement
attempt to change from leasehold to freehold, to improve value of flats

Appropriate perhaps when a proposal
is made by more than 50% of the leaseholders in a building or block who want to
try to do more than just continue leasing.

Possible advantages. Most leased
flats in Sovereign Harbour have quite short original leases, the average being
125 years from the date the flat was first put on the market. In 2018 this has
shrunk to an average of 110 years. Thus most long-lease flats, especially in
Sovereign Harbour where there is a surfeit of flats, must be realistically
regarded as assets wasted when computed into their capital value. Once their lease
expiry reduces to 80 years or less there will be a further decline in their
capital value with the result that the costs of trying to extend leases will
rise significantly due to the "marriage value" that will need to be
paid to the freeholder. "Marriage value" in this context is applicable
to leasehold properties. As the sum of leasehold and freehold interests is
described as the total property value then the marriage value is the increase in
the total property value following a lease extension or collective
enfranchisement. Typical costs to add 90 years to a lease, based on current
Leasehold Advisory Service data, for a £200,000 flat vary tremendously but can
be very high. The cost of collective enfranchisement will have extras, such as a valuation fee and
freeholder's legal costs.However, it could be of significant
benefit to collectively (at least 60 percent of all leaseholders in the building
are required) endeavor (voluntarily if the freeholder agrees or by legal means
if no such voluntary agreement is obtained) to obtain the freehold of a building in which
each participating flat will then have a share of the freehold. Benefits would likely
include increasing a flat's capital value; remove all need to be concerned about
lease extension as leaseholders would be deemed to be freeholders and/or have
the ability to extend the lease to 999 years and at a purely nominal ground rent
of one peppercorn per flat instead of the £150 annually payable now per flat
and likely to double in the next 10 years if not halted; allow new freeholders
to have control over service charges; and allow them to appoint their own
management company. There would also be avoidance of extra annual or semi-annual
or quarterly management service charges payable to a management entity owning or
managing a number of buildings and with some of those buildings being older than others
and/or requiring more maintenance but with all flat leasing holders in that
group of buildings owned or managed by one entity having to pay the same service
charges price. Instead, management charges for only that particular building
will apply. As at August 2018 leaseholders in buildings in all areas of Sovereign Harbour
should have no increase
in ground rents in their initial period of 10 years or until the period
specified in each lease has
elapsed. Ground rents thereafter are forecast to increase annually by the same percentage amount
as the Estate Rent/harbour charge or by other decisions of a freeholder Some ground rents could double
in the foreseeable future. However. successful collective enfranchisement would
mean ground rent would effectively cease and instead of the relatively short
leases that leaseholders have now, they would be extended legally to 999 years,
in effect freehold as all participating leaseholders, by virtue of having a
share in the freehold via their shares participation in the property's new
management company, would then apply. Also, instead of three layers of
management control as most leaseholders have now, namely a Residents Association
for both that building and others in the same freeholders precinct, plus a
management company and thirdly the freeholder company, there would only be one,
the management company for that building only, with much more accessibility and
involvement by all who participate in the collective enfranchisement process.
Those who participate who are full-time local residents should ensure they have
at least the same number of their members on the board of management as
non-full-time-residents. (This has been one of the failings of other local
leaseholders Resident Associations).

Cost. It is anticipated by
one group applying for collective enfranchisement of one Sovereign Harbour North
building that the cost for a successful application could be about £5,500
including all legal fees, surveyor's fees, etc. If that proves to be the case,
it could be money well-spent on presently leased-only properties as above
averaging about £240,000 in market value.

Leaseholders who do not wish
to be included will continue to have the relatively short leases they do
now, plus pay both annual service charges and ground rents, but to the new
management company.

What it will not do. It
will still mean payment of the Annual Estate Rental, plus Council Taxes, as
before. It will still mean that flats, especially in buildings facing the
seafront and harbour, will be subject to an annual service charge. although,
because only one building will be involved, it should be appreciably lower than
before, especially if the new management company is run as a tight ship and with
all participants in agreement on major matters such as annual service charges
for essential and preventative maintenance of the building and its common areas.

Commonhold instead of
leasehold

Not yet being offered to
potential newcomers in any Sovereign Harbour property. Now being looked into by some
residents, following suggestions from the Leasehold Advisory Service.
Unfortunately, here in Sovereign Harbour, it becomes more complex and perhaps
less feasible primarily because the present Annual Rentcharges are applied which
do not or possibly cannot devolve to a local
authority or statutory undertaker through adoption.

Commonhold
is a system of property ownership in England and Wales. It involves the
indefinite freehold tenure of part of a multi-occupancy building (typically a
flat) with shared ownership of and responsibility for common areas and services.
It has features of the strata title and the condominium systems, which exist in
Australia, Bermuda, Caribbean, USA, etc. It was introduced in the UK by the
Commonhold and Leasehold Reform Act 2002 as an alternative to leasehold, and was
the first new type of legal estate to be introduced in English law since 1925.
An important difference between commonholds on the one hand and leaseholds
(leases) on the other is that commonholds do not depreciate in value towards the
end of their Term (term, term of years or in extraneous documents
sometimes existence). In the years since the 2002 Act became law, only a
handful of commonholds have been registered, whilst hundreds of thousands of
long leases have been granted during the same period. As of 3 June 2009, there
were 12 commonhold residential developments comprising 97 units (homes) in
England and one commonhold residential development comprising 30 units (homes)
in Wales. Where freehold houses should be subjected to positive covenants which
force their owners contribute to communal maintenance, such as in garden
squares, as few such duties can attach to freeholds, access to such areas can be
physically restricted to those who own that area, commonly through a residents'
Management Company. Such a company if the land was owned by the original
landlord such as a developer may come into the hands of the lessees (tenants)
through a statutory process of the Right to Manage leading to legal agreements
or a court order which creates a limited liability Right to Manage (also known
as an RTM) Company.

Council Taxes 50% higher than
the national average with Council Taxes highest in the UK

See Eastbourne Council Tax WrongsThe Sovereign Harbour average is Council Tax Band E costing well over £2,200 a year in
2018 for a leased Sovereign Harbour £240,000
750 square foot flat with no land or garage of its own. The Band E Council Tax
for that Sovereign Harbour flat incurs the same Council Tax as a market value
£350,000 to £450,000 property elsewhere in Eastbourne and 80% more than a magnificent
Band H £35 million
multi-roomed Band G palace or mansion in central London.

Flood Plain Insurance is
required

Because developers pressed
their demands to build on land deemed to be in a flood plain and there were none
or insufficient objections, they were allowed to proceed. We, the
freeholders or long-leaseholders now pay the price in required expensive floodplain
insurance on contents of properties.

Ground Rents 100% higher than
national average

This is the case presently (in
mid 2018). Leaseholders in buildings in all areas of Sovereign Harbour will longer qualify for no increase
in ground rents after the normal initial period of 10 years or the period
specified in each lease has
elapsed. Ground rents thereafter can either be increased annually by the same percentage amount
as the Estate Rent/harbour charge or by other decisions of a freeholder It has
been estimated that some ground rents could double in the foreseeable future.

Hanging out laundry to dry
not allowed under most leases

But why? It might be
justified in part where some properties are deemed exclusive and private and
members of the public are not allowed to pass by. But they cannot be justified
in properties where, such as in Sovereign Harbour, walkways and paths are not
exclusive because they allow any and all members of the public who are not
Sovereign Harbour residents to cycle or stroll or walk by and on the beachside,
bring their dogs. If they are allowed and dogs can leave their messes for hours
or days without being picked up by owners then surely Sovereign Harbour
freeholders and leaseholders should not be prevented from hanging out their
laundry to dry for just a few hours.

Hot Water Cylinders: when they
reach the end of their working lives, leaseholders must pay for
new ones and their annual servicing cost

Sovereign Harbour has the
highest incidents in the UK of bursting hot water cylinders causing what
insurance companies refer to as an escape of water, or flooding. In less
than a year, one group of beachside flat buildings alone in Sovereign Harbour
North have had nine such problems.
Bursting water storage heaters have caused substantial damage to individual
flats and those below them or adjacent to them. There have been other similar
cases in both North and South Harbour. Residents have gone away on holiday and
have returned to find their flats or homes flooded, with carpets soaked,
furniture ruined, electrical items a dangerous hazard and often electricity cut
off. Most water storage heaters inside the flats are likely to be original
and coming to the end of their working life expectancy of 10-15 years. There is
now such cause for concern that management companies are asking freeholders and
leaseholders for copies of their last service sheets and information on if and
when freeholders or leaseholders had their water storage tanks replaced, at
their cost. They urge all residents to carry out an urgent inspection of water
tanks and if there is corrosion or they have not been serviced annually or both,
to get them replaced - at their cost, averaging £950 or more in each case,
including labour, as soon as possible. Leaseholders who have Contents but no
Building insurance and are so affected should know it can take weeks for carpets
to be removed and replaced and flats dehumidified and dried out before new
carpets can be installed. They should also know that their Buildings insurers
may not pay for any water storage tanks replacement. Leases should be checked
carefully to see if it does or not. However, a claim should be made for
reimbursement of the costs. Some Buildings policies may have wording that
excludes any issue relating to age or war and tear. In which case, if their is
no cover under the Buildings insurance policy, it may be worth complaining to
the freeholders via their managing agents that the water cylinders concerned may
not have been up to the job. Also, when leaving a flat empty for any
period of time over a day or so, the water supply should be turned off at the
mains stop-cock. When homes or flats are rented out for short term holidays or
longer-term, those who rent must be made aware of all the above.

Management Fees annually and
related charges are often substantial and can rise hugely

In January 2018 most increased, some by
a massive 250% yet on beachside in Sovereign Harbour North built only in 2009-2010, although it is stated the
latter's massive increase is only for 2 years from 2018 and mostly for
substantial buildings improvement. Communal areas and parking problems are also
source of contention. All leaseholders are expected to contribute to communal
areas including all garages and their maintenance, fixing and painting but some
leaseholders whose leases clearly state they do not include a two-car garage or
share of one for one car, with their vehicle having to park outside in an
assigned parking spot, have objected, stating they should not have to pay for a
service not communal to them only to those whose lease specifies that garage or
part of it. Occupants of other buildings who also do not have garages assigned
to them but park outside may have the same problem. This Inconsistency
does not occur in buildings with and without lifts. Those with lifts pay extra,
which is not contested. As those without lifts pay less surely the same should
apply to those who do not have garages?

Illegal substances are not
allowed in any development

But many who rent out their flats
do not stop their tenants from using them, much to the annoyance of other occupants who
obey the law. Miscreants concerned
try to disguise their illegalities with sprays, which waft around a building and
make it even more obvious.

Sovereign Harbour beaches and
harbour walkways are constantly abused

See Sovereign
Harbour Beaches. They are not
included in any of Eastbourne's beaches with the latter's' facilities, benches and
dog regulations and more. Presently, Sovereign Harbour's North and South beaches, unlike all
those Eastbourne beaches, have no facilities, no benches, no life-saving
apparatus, no life guards. They are privately owned up to the high water mark by the
properties opposite them but this is deliberately or routinely ignored by non-resident
strangers. The walkway between the developments and the sea, intended for
pedestrians only, are constantly abused by mostly non-resident cyclists, some of whom expect
spectators to get out of their way.

Dog Poo Capital of the UK

The beaches, land between the beaches
and walkway and the walkway itself are also often abused by dog owners whose
dogs often foul the area and whose owners often do not pick up and dispose
of the mess. People who live in Eastbourne proper come here to do what they cannot do in Eastbourne, let their dogs off
leashes and let them roam and poop without fear of prosecution. It completely
spoils the beaches for many local residents, who have complained in vain to
date. Authorities and community groups have declined to tackle the situation. In
October 2017 the Eastbourne Borough Council approved new restrictions requiring
dogs on leashes at all times on the walkways surrounding Sovereign Harbour but
Sovereign Harbour beaches are again excluded from the Council's directive.
However, wherever the public is allowed to go - as they are on both Sovereign
Harbour beaches and all walkways - the local authorities are legally obliged to
comply with environmental regulations. SeeIssues and Dangers from Dog
Fouling at http://www.kingdom.co.uk/articles/issues-and-dangers-surrounding-dog-fouling/

Beaches not protected by local
ordnances

These beaches are legally,
geographically and physically in the town of Eastbourne's Sovereign Ward area
and residents pay their council and council-tax-related taxes to both Eastbourne
Borough Council and East Sussex Borough Council. This surely should mean that
the present arrangement whereby the Pevensey Bay entity that presently
exclusively both controls these beaches at the behest of the Sovereign Harbour
Trust and Environment Agency and gets 3,700 local residents (but no one else) to
pay for the flood defences that also cover a much wider area involving more than
17,000 residents all the way to Bexhill, should be abolished, with these beaches
at long last fully incorporated into Eastbourne's listing of public town
beaches. When town beaches are periodically cleaned and maintained by the local
authorities, Sovereign Harbour beaches, also legally in the town, are not, When
considerable amounts of debris from plastics come ashore from the sea,
especially noticeable in 2018, they are cleaned up at all Eastbourne beaches
except those in Sovereign Harbour. While the general public continues to freely use and abuse
the Sovereign Harbour beaches and
this is encouraged by the beach owners they surely should not still be considered as
private beaches but should be forced by the councils authorities concerned to be
re-classified as public beaches. In the meantime, Sovereign Harbour
beachfront area residents are not getting value for money for the beachfront
flood defence and harbour defences they alone, nowhere else in the UK or
Europe or the world, are required to pay to the Environment Agency.

Elsewhere in the UK and
abroad, leaseholders of privately leased or owned properties enjoy facilities both inside
and outside. But not here

Instead of giving leaseholders alone exclusive
rights to enjoy views and walks on the property's privately owned beachfront
paths and beachside area in front of any beach-side property, the management
companies and landlords not only allow but encourage members of the public to
roam, walk and cycle on the path and land fronting the buildings. Time and time
again residents of beach-front Sovereign Harbour properties are harassed and
bothered by non residents using cycles on the beach-front pathway that is too
narrow to be used by cyclists, other non residents wandering or walking their
often unleashed dogs and not cleaning up their dog messes. In inner-harbour
areas, much wider pathways have the same nuisances. Sovereign Harbour residents
alone should not be paying management fees or Estate Rental charges to subsidize
public - not private-to-residents - usage of all the outdoor facilities. Either
the management fees and Estate Rental Charges all residents have to pay should
be reduced substantially or all areas and footpaths and walkways in the
Sovereign Harbour area and its beachfront should be fenced off to deny access to
non residents.

Uninviting environment of
no trees or shrubs on pavements

Sovereign Harbour is completely treeless.
But not so all other seaside and marina places both at home and
abroad. The latter are attractive scenically by appropriate trees planted by
local authorities along streets and roads, or fronting beaches or on
pavements or sidewalks, Sovereign Harbour has no such environmentally
friendly and scenic features. Instead, it has deep mounds of gravel in many places, instead of looking picturesque and
attractive to live in, they make the main and other Sovereign Harbour streets and
their buildings look more like a military base or large prison camp.

Note the complete lack of any trees or shrubs in front of the apartment units.
Not an enticement to buy or lease, quite the opposite. Keith Forbes photo.

Trees in a seaside
area but sadly not in Sovereign Harbour

Traffic problems

Sovereign Harbour has more road
traffic roundabouts that slow traffic per square mile than anywhere else in
Britain or Europe or the world. Sovereign Harbour North has five roundabouts
in less than a mile along the length of Pacific Avenue alone; another
roundabout with four different exists to the Waterfront and Sovereign Harbour
Shopping Centre stores; and more roundabouts along Atlantic Avenue and nearby.
Eastbourne to the west, On Pacific Avenue, a normally clear road is now clogged
with cars parked there immediately outside the new development at the north end
of Sovereign Harbour. (One visitor from the USA wondered if the eight new
dwellings there in four buildings comprised a new prison). More roundabouts at Polegate and beyond
are maddening to visitors from the USA and elsewhere. Traffic is invariably heavy
and waits can be long.

Significantly....

Sovereign Harbour, despite being classed by its promoters as an
international destination, perhaps in view of all the above is not on the list of places to visit on the
websites of the Eastbourne .Borough Council or East Sussex County Council,
both of which have jurisdiction.